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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Guat's Days of Change

Chuah Guat Eng's second novel Days of Change is due for release next month. It is the sequel to her first novel Echoes of Silence and is published by her own company Holograms. Here's the blurb :

The narrator is 55-year old Hafiz, whose name means 'the preserver' and 'the memorizer'. When his story begins, Hafiz is suffering from memory loss following a fall down a ravine in Ulu Banir. Unable to talk to a psychiatrist, he uses the I Ching, the Chinese 'book of changes' to trigger his memory. His objectives: to remember the circumstances of his fall, and why he now feels repulsed by his beautiful young wife. His experiment results in 8 notebooks, in which he records his memories of his childhood, the women in his life, his battle against a major corporation bent on appropriating his land and flooding the Banir valley for a Disneyland-type theme park, and his efforts to contribute to Malaysia's progress and development while preserving local traditional knowledge and his own moral integrity. Through Hafiz's memories, thoughts, and dreams, DAYS OF CHANGE provides glimpses of the socio-political changes and ethical challenges Malaysians have had to cope with since Independence.

The launch is at 1.30pm, 12 June 2010, The Annexe, Pasar Seni, Kuala Lumpur. You are all invited.